


a bad decision (a good ending)

by hulovaa



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Fix-It of Sorts, Gen, Two Shot, Yondaime Jiraya
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-13
Updated: 2020-11-13
Packaged: 2021-03-09 21:28:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,051
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27543091
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hulovaa/pseuds/hulovaa
Summary: He signed a contract with the devil and sealed it with his blood; and when he realised what he just did, it was a bit too late.—Or: Jiraya accidentally becomes the Yondaime.
Relationships: Jiraya & Hatake Kakashi, Jiraya & Namikaze Minato, Jiraya & Sarutobi Hiruzen, Jiraya & Uzumaki Kushina, Jiraya & Uzumaki Naruto
Comments: 3
Kudos: 21





	a bad decision (a good ending)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [uchiwan](https://archiveofourown.org/users/uchiwan/gifts).



> Uchiwan’s comment gave me this idea, so now I guess I’m doing this lol.
> 
> Anyways, have a short explanation of why in this fic, Sakumo didn’t kill himself; he was executed:  
> Sakumo’s canon death wouldn’t make Jiraya pissed (pissed enough for this fic to happen).

Jiraya was _incensed_ when he came back to Konoha and learnt the news of Sakumo’s death – no, _execution._

He was even _more_ incensed once he learnt that Sakumo’s son had been let to graduate at the tender age of five, and is to be sent out to the battlefields of the war that his father was falsely believed to have started.

And to top it off: he wasn’t even informed of all of this by his own fucking sensei who is the Hokage and could’ve prevented _all_ of those things. No, he was informed of this by his student who came running to him once he saw him, in the middle of a battlefield telling him about Sakumo’s unfair execution and about him, a kid – not even twenty for fuck’s sake, somehow becoming Kakashi’s legal guardian.

Jiraya didn’t know exactly how his knock on the door of the Hokage’s office managed to sound as pissed as he was, but god was he happy it did.

“Come in,” his sensei said after a moment’s hesitation, and Jiraya did so; He threw open the door, not even bothering to greet or bow to his Kage, he slapped his hands down on Sarutobi’s desk (spitefully enjoying the way how the neatly arranged pile of paperwork on it fell down), and asked his sensei but a simple question:

“What the fuck, Hiruzen-sensei?”

“What what?” Sarutobi asked as if he didn’t know at all what Jiraya was talking about.

“What the fuck have to done while me and Tsunade weren’t here? Sakumo’s dead, executed by _you_ ; his kid is to be sent out to the battlefields at fucking _five_ ; my student who isn’t even twenty yet is Kakashi’s legal guardian now. What. the. fuck.”

Hiruzen had to admit; his student had a point. He himself was questioning how things went wrong so quickly.

Before he could even try to explain, to reason his decisions, his student sat down on the chair at the Hokage’s desk, opposite to the Hokage. It wasn’t really even sitting down; Jiraya _fell_ into the chair like a puppet whose strings have been cut by too many bloody swords, hurtful words, horrible decisions… 

(They were all done with war, the Sannin. Even Orochimaru, although he would never admit that.)

“Like,” his student started (Jiraya’s anger was already dimming at the sight of the all-too familiar face of his sensei; exasperation took the its place.), “I get why Kakashi was accelerated — prodigy and all — but haven’t you learned from what Tobirama-sama has told you? ‘Prodigies are the ones who crack under pressure the easiest; for they were already born a bit cracked.’ Putting Kakashi into the battlefields will only make him crack.” 

“Who said I am putting him in the battlefie–?” Sarutobi was stopped by the sharp look Jiraya threw at him.

“Don’t lie to me, Hiruzen-sensei,” Jiraya’s anger was back in full force. What had become of his sensei while he was on his travels? _(What had that warmongering Danzou did to him?)_

“We both know that even though you’re not putting him out to fight _now,_ you will do so sooner rather than later. I’ve heard from Minato that you’re already putting them on high C-ranked missions.”

“So you want me to stop that? Stop putting Kakashi on missions? Let him learn only inside Konoha?” Sarutobi asked incredulously. It technically could be done, but Minato — Kakashi’s sensei — was too useful of an asset, too strong of a shinobi, to just let be stuck inside Konoha’s walls especially during wartime.

“Yes, but that’s not the main topic that I’ve come to ‘discuss’ here.

“Why did you let Sakumo be executed _for doing the right goddamn thing?_ Aren’t the people of Konoha supposed to be like a family to the Hokage? That’s murder of family, Sarutobi-sensei. I never had you for a fratricidal* person.”

Sarutobi sighed. “The Daimyo himself asked for Sakumo’s death. You know I can’t oppose the Daimyo.”

Jiraya narrowed his eyes. “A lie.”

“Not a lie.”

“From what happened in the past few weeks, I wouldn’t put it past you to lie about this kind of thing.” His student’s words _cut_ into the centre of Sarutobi’s heart. Jiraya would never, _ever_ voice that he enjoyed the look in Sarutobi’s eyes at his words.

Sarutobi sighed once again. Soon enough, it’ll have become a habit. “I’m old. Even if I could’ve opposed the Daimyo, I wouldn’t have had. I don’t want to fight anymore.” Yes, that sentence did come from the ruler of a shinobi village; a bit strange then, isn’t it? 

Both of the men were all too familiar with these kinds of sentences coming from Kage. 

Hashirama wished for peace, but it seems that he only brought on more war, did he not? _(Where did it all go wrong?)_

“Then pass on the hat,” Jiraya said, as if he wasn’t the person who was the Sandaime's first choice of a successor.

“I can’t; no one to pass it to,” before Jiraya could interrupt him with _But Minato,_ Sarutobi continued. “Minato’s too young, doesn’t have enough of a reputation. This war could bring him that, but that doesn’t happen that easily, that quickly.”

Jiraya could understand that, at least.

“ _You,_ of course, are an option too, but that won’t happen ever,” Sarutobi laughed at that. _(Already laughing at his pain;_ _a bit too late in his Hokage reign._ _)_

In a moment of pure bad decision making and spitefulness at his sensei’s statement of it never happening, Jiraya said: 

“I _could_ take up the hat from you.”

At Jiraya’s words, Sarutobi fished out a form from his now ruined pile of papers and put it before Jiraya with a pen. He wasn’t above using Jiraya’s one short and sweet -could sentence; Sarutobi _would_ make that could into a will. He wasn’t above using Jiraya’s little moment of weakness and (or?) dumbness for his own benefit. _(Did that make him something of an antagonist? Probably.)_

For the _village’s_ benefit.

And that is how Jiraya signed the Kage successor form; first with ink, then with blood.

He signed a contract with the devil and sealed it with his blood; and when he realised what he just did, it was a bit too late; Sarutobi was already shoo-ing him out from his office.

_Fuck._


End file.
